Although most attention in the United Nations today was turned towards the speech by U.S. President George Bush - in which he demanded that Saddam Hussein comply with the U.N. or face military action - some apparently hypocritical aspects of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's remarks were also noted. Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Annan said,
"The so-called sequential approach has failed. As we agreed at the Quartet meeting [involving leaders of the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the UN], an international peace conference is needed without delay to set out a roadmap of parallel steps - steps to strengthen Israel's security, steps to strengthen Palestinian economic and political institutions, and steps to settle the details of the final peace agreement. Meanwhile, humanitarian steps to relieve Palestinian suffering must be intensified."
After emphasizing that Israel's security needs need not be solved before Palestinian humanitarian needs are addressed, Kofi Annan said that this approach need not be taken regarding Iraq:
"Iraq's compliance with the [U.N.] Council's resolutions… is an indispensable first step towards assuring the world that all Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have indeed been eliminated - and let me stress, towards the suspension and eventual ending of the sanctions that are causing so many hardships for the Iraqi people. I urge Iraq to comply with its obligations for the sake of its own people, and for the sake of world order…"
Annan thus made it clear that the United Nations enables Iraqi suffering until after its own "security demands" are met - whereas he requires Israel to relieve Palestinian suffering even while its own security needs remain unfulfilled.
"The so-called sequential approach has failed. As we agreed at the Quartet meeting [involving leaders of the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the UN], an international peace conference is needed without delay to set out a roadmap of parallel steps - steps to strengthen Israel's security, steps to strengthen Palestinian economic and political institutions, and steps to settle the details of the final peace agreement. Meanwhile, humanitarian steps to relieve Palestinian suffering must be intensified."
After emphasizing that Israel's security needs need not be solved before Palestinian humanitarian needs are addressed, Kofi Annan said that this approach need not be taken regarding Iraq:
"Iraq's compliance with the [U.N.] Council's resolutions… is an indispensable first step towards assuring the world that all Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have indeed been eliminated - and let me stress, towards the suspension and eventual ending of the sanctions that are causing so many hardships for the Iraqi people. I urge Iraq to comply with its obligations for the sake of its own people, and for the sake of world order…"
Annan thus made it clear that the United Nations enables Iraqi suffering until after its own "security demands" are met - whereas he requires Israel to relieve Palestinian suffering even while its own security needs remain unfulfilled.